Bespoke journeys
A private multi-day itinerary built around your time, interests and pace — from route design to local partners, arranged end to end.
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More than a checklist · Your gateway to China
A deeper way to travel
in deeper China
Private journeys and local experiences, planned by people who live here. Routes, local partners and on-the-ground details — the things that are hard to arrange from halfway around the world.
OUR APPROACH
More than a checklist · Your gateway to China
China is not a checklist. It is a gateway to a world worth understanding, experiencing and connecting with.
For many travellers China is exciting but hard to read. Cities move fast, everyday tools are unfamiliar, and the best moments are rarely the ones on the itinerary. We take care of routes, local partners, transport and the daily practicalities — so your time here feels clear and unhurried instead of scrambled.
SIT (Shirley International Travel) works with international travellers coming to China: 23 years of domestic travel experience, a 30-strong multilingual team, and a nationwide network covering every provincial-level region — including Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.
WAYS TO TRAVEL
Every trip to China starts with a reason
Each journey begins with one reason: a first visit, a business agenda, or something more personal. We turn that reason into a clear route, local support and a plan that actually works.
Business & delegations
Meetings, interpretation, transfers, site visits, business dinners and city briefings — everything around the agenda is handled too.
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Accessible tourism
ExclusiveDeaf and hard-of-hearing travellers: dedicated professional sign-language guides. Reduced mobility: step-free transfers throughout, accessibility checks at every site, and end-to-end accessible route design.
Explore accessible tourism
All-inclusive local life
Roots journeys, creative projects, life milestones — the trips that need more care, and need to be understood.
Explore local lifeSTORIES
Stories from real journeys
Four ways different travellers came to know China — through a first visit, a business agenda, or a slower kind of everyday.
GATEWAYS
Four ways in, starting from these cities
One hub city in each direction — north, south, east and west — receives you on arrival and carries you deeper into the region. These are starting points, not fixed routes. We plan around your time, your interests, and the part of China you want to understand.
Beijing
Northern hubGateway to the old capitals: the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the hutong — a clear entry point for a first visit.
Connects to: Xi'an / Tianjin / Harbin / Inner Mongolia
Shanghai
Eastern hubGateway to modern China: the Bund and shikumen lanes, design spaces, city life and business context.
Connects to: Hangzhou / Suzhou / Nanjing / Huangshan
Guangzhou
Southern hubGateway to the Greater Bay Area and South-East Asia: food, trade and markets, plus the Canton Fair and solid business context.
Connects to: Xiamen / Guilin / Sanya / Shenzhen
Chengdu
Western hubPandas, food and Dujiangyan: slow teahouse life, Sichuan cooking and hotpot.
Connects to: Chongqing / Kunming / Lijiang / Jiuzhaigou
Don't see your destination? Tell us the direction and we will plan around your route, dates and interests.
Tell us your destinationONE-STOP SERVICE
One brief, six things arranged
Flights, accommodation, sightseeing, dining, transport, guiding — six modules handled under one roof, with us as your only counterpart.
Flights
Global booking · rebooking · schedule reliability
Accommodation
Selected across every budget and style
Sightseeing
Tickets · priority entry · fast-track access
Dining
Regional specialities · personalised meal plans
Transport
Private vehicle · professional driver · rail links
Guiding
Multilingual guides · sign-language guides
One city at a time, into everyday China
Start with a single-city private experience and step into a city's lanes, crafts, food and daily rhythm.
BEIJING
Tea, porcelain and old-city crafts
An unhurried afternoon inside carefully chosen historic spaces.
SHANGHAI
Design, lanes and city life
Local lanes, architecture, cafés and design spaces — contemporary Shanghai up close.
CHENGDU
Teahouses and the slow life
Bamboo chairs, lidded bowls and conversation in the park. A city at a slower pace.
PRACTICAL GUIDE
Once the details are settled, China gets simple
Airport pick-up, getting around, payment apps, language support, reservations and holiday crowds — we have already thought of these, before you land and while you travel.
Most travellers still need a visa, but two exemptions cover many short trips. The 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit covers nationals of 57 countries: with an ordinary passport and an onward ticket to a third country or region, you may enter through any of the 65 open ports — including Beijing and Shanghai — and stay up to 240 hours within the designated areas. Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry covers 61 countries, allowing stays of up to 30 days inside Hainan province for tourism, business, family visits, medical treatment or conferences. Neither covers work, study or journalism. These rules change, so before you book we check your nationality, ports and dates against the current regulations.
Expert guides in English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Malay and Russian, plus sign-language specialists for deaf and hard-of-hearing guests. When you explore on your own, a translation app, phrase cards and our 24-hour hotline are there — and your guide handles day-to-day communication for you.
Dining and admissions are included, with priority access. Menus are tailored to halal, vegetarian, low-texture and other dietary needs, and we brief you on local etiquette in advance. We also plan around peak periods — National Day Golden Week, Spring Festival and May Day — to keep you away from the crowds, or, if you prefer, build a festival into the trip instead.
We arrange your private airport transfer, a city orientation with your guide on day one, help with hotel check-in, and time to rest after a long flight — nothing is rushed.
High-speed rail is the backbone of your itinerary: we book every ticket, meet you at the station and connect onward flights or coaches. Accessible travellers get wheelchair seating and priority passage confirmed in advance — and you never have to wrestle with 12306, China’s rail booking system, yourself.
Before you arrive we help you link an international Visa or Mastercard to Alipay and WeChat Pay, and arrange a SIM or eSIM. If activation is still pending, your guide can pay on your behalf and settle with you later. We also brief you on departure tax refunds and keeping some cash on hand.
PRICING
How pricing works
Standard products such as local-life programmes and regional routes are priced transparently and quoted as a package. For products that need site checks — accessible tourism above all — we confirm the final price with you before payment.
Bespoke journeys, business travel and themed journeys are quoted item by item: route, dates, group size, hotel category, transport, local partners and special arrangements. You do not need a finished itinerary — a rough idea is enough to begin.
Start with a rough ideaABOUT SIT
We live here, so we see it clearly
SIT is a small team that has spent years on custom travel. We tend to break a trip into four things — route, pace, people, details — and we tend to think of the parts our guests only discover once they arrive.
Licences & compliance
Travel Agency Business Licence L-SH-100570, licensed for domestic and inbound tourism, issued by the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.
Dual entities in China and Japan: our Tokyo affiliate, 株式会社東寅 (Tokyo Metropolitan Government registration No. 20211), enables two-way sourcing and reception between China and Japan.
START HERE
A rough idea is enough
Tell us why you are going. Share your dates, who is coming, and what is still unclear — we will come back with the right next step.
While you wait
We reply within one business day. In the meantime, these may help.
